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Heavy Petting

Almost all the presidents in my lifetime have had a pet while in the White House.

Dwight had a Weimaraner named Heidi and a parakeet, Gabby.

JFK increased the national debt with his menagerie of dogs, puppies, cats, canaries, parakeets and ponies. Oh, yes, John-John and Carolyn also herded hamsters and rounded up rabbits but drew the line at lions, tigers and bears.

Lovebirds billed and cooed in LBJ’s White House. Hamsters burrowed there too. Hamsters bred fast during Camelot and couldn’t all be rounded up after JFK’s time as the tenant. They say even now on a quiet night you can hear hamsters in the walls of the White House. LBJ was most infamous for the beagle that he lifted up by the ears for photographers because, well, just because, he could.

Nixon had four dogs. One, emperially, named King Timahoe. The most famous dog was Checkers, who never lived in the White House. Nixon’s speech, in which Checkers was mentioned, is one of the most famous in politics and showed Nixon at his best. Listen to a little of it… http://presidentialpetmuseum.com/bl…/richard-nixon-checkers/.

Ford housed dogs and Shan the Siamese cat.

Misty Malarkey Ying Yang was Jimmy Carter’s Siamese Cat. I love the name. Those were the good old days.

Ronnie had dogs and horses (on the ranch).

H.W. had two English Springers including the oft mentioned Millie.

You would expect Bill had something more spectacular than Boots the cat and Buddy the Lab.

“W” had Miss Beazely and others.

That brings us to Barrack and his Portugese Waterdogs, Bo and Sunny. The president never lifted them by their ears but, in a last minute protest, apparently against being kicked out of the dog house, er, White House, the younger dog, Bo, with just a week left in his tenure, bit a visitor. There are so many spins off that my brain nearly explodes but, since the first president in my lifetime was Harry Truman, I am sure that, no matter which direction I move, I would end up in political incorrectness.

I would be remiss to omit Truman who was given a dog, “Feller”, that he promptly gave away. When asked, in a Silverado-like (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pus0yJlFW38) moment, “Where’s Feller,” Truman enraged the nation when he replied, “Who?”

Let that be a cautionary tale for the, apparently, petless Donald Trump who, just a month ago, was given a dog who, according to my sources, Trump has not yet claimed. The dog, provided by a wealthy donor, will be called Patton and is a “Golden doodle.” Honest, to best of my knowledge, many good people have confirmed it. I can’t make this stuff up and it was even in the Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/meet-patton-the-goldendo…/…

When considering the possibility of a dogless Donald in the White House, I thought I should get the opinion of some dogs on this matter. This morning I dropped into the doggy spa area at PetSmart. A Chihuahua summarized things best, “It’s not so much that President-elect Trump won’t have us, it’s more that we won’t have him.”